All topics here will be to do with the land, meta-ecology (if I am so lucky)
We can use whatever presents itself in the world view, to share with the world at large.
We are here with opportunity and at best a real purpose to make good changes both small and great.
See http://www.ourfutureplanet.org/ for ideas from like-minded people.
My garden- in Spring this area is full of fairy grass (Sporobolus caroli), hung with dewdrops, it is a pretty sight. I am trying to grow wildflowers, in a harsh climate, inland New South Wales, Australia.
The concrete echidna almost looks real. One did march through my property some years ago. I wish I could see more native animals, but they are rare in these parts, though not gone altogether.
The land is blessed with beautiful birds- choughs, pink galahs, magpies, currawongs, peewees, honey eaters, topknot pigeons, parrots of all kinds, willy wagtails, occasionally quails, blue wrens, cockatoos, ravens, owls sometimes.
There are lizards, even a stumpytail shingleback. A blue-tongue might visit me as did a lace monitor one day. These lizards must know someone lives here, for they came straight to the front door of my caravan. I see them not often enough. Snakes do live here. I might see two each Summer. Last Summer was incredibly rainy, after years of real drought, and I saw not one snake.
There are worriesomely few insects, even bees are not many except for the occasional swarm. One suspects farm chemicals, especially hormone disrupting chemicals. We need to discuss how to remedy this worry.
There are mice in my caravan. It seems there is a family- an alpha male who from a dream I am naming Galirondo. There is a pink nose one who I am guessing is a female- she has looked me in the eye twice. I caught four in the waste paper basket "trap" yesterday, and I took them out into the paddock. Galirondo came back! It didn't take him long! I feel mean breaking up his family! I kind of hope they will come back.
I am just guessing about them. Actually I don't mind them being inside. I can study them and practise "loving kindness to all creatures" on them. I just need to clean up a lot!
but....There is a worry about disease- Leptospirosis, Hantavirus!...... from the urine.....
There is a plague of mice. A taxidriver's friend saw 100 mice running across the road. In Springtime they will breed and the prospect is frightening! The last plague was in 2002, in Sydney too.
One wonders- what is the meaning of "plagues" in the greater scheme of things in Nature?
In the 1970s I had a book "The Gift of the Deer" by Helen Hoover. It is a heritage book now, still available on Amazon. I lost my copy because being homeless (only renting, often having to move when the house is sold)- I often had to get rid of all my books to lighten the load..... Helen was a metallurgist from Chicago, but she and her husband left the city to live in the forest at the edge of the Great Lakes. She observed the deer which came to visit, and she wrote books. They had a summer house with a piano, but for freezing cold winter they had a small cabin. She was studying the mice until one day when they were away someone came in to the cabin and "thoughtfully" put out poison bait. End of mouse study.
Helen wrote of one important observation which I have never forgotten regarding plagues:-
At times there was massive defoliation of forest trees by the spruce bud screw worm. Foresters poisoned them to control. However, Helen saw that in the years the screw budworm was abundant, it was in those years that the squirrels were fertile! More protein in their diet.
My instincts told me that the mice may be a result of poisons on wheat crops. The mice might be there to eat them to "clean up" the ecology. Unfortunately, the birds and animals that eat mice would also get poisoned. Only the few would survive- the ones with some capacity to cope with poison....
Same with locusts. In 2007 a million hectares of NSW were sprayed with a mix of insecticides. I wrote letters to The Land and to RLPB and to radio national regarding this. Last year we expected such a locust plague again but it didn't eventuate! There is a bio friendly locusticide called "Greenguard" which has been developed after a farmer made a great observation of fungus infected locust individuals and posted them to a lab. In South Australia in previous years they had a drought followed by a locust plague, then an "emu plague". I found out in the library that emus love to eat locusts! My feeling has been we are so afraid because of lost income ( an understandable fear, in this expensive world), that even emus had to be "culled".
What if farmers had viewed the emus as a gift from nature?
They could have benefited from fresh meat and huge eggs.
Our society is so tight that we have to take short term action rather than long term strategies.
Top predators might be more fertile when there are "plagues". Instead we use pesticides which kill not only the pests but also the predators of those "pests".
What if our world could slow down and be less competitive?
There might be less sickness from stress; pregnant women especially need tranquillity for the sake of their babies. There might be less cancer if farmers didn't have to overproduce so much and use so much poison.
WHAT IF.........
What if we could Rethink our Rules, to Benefit Humans and Nature, together?
It is fundamental change that is needed, to save our World,
so that all Beings may be happy, even Corporations et al.
The latest issue of Resurgence magazine is devoted to Rabindranath Tagore who had much to say relevant to these matters. May/June 2011 issue No. 266. See pag 26.
The quote is
"By unrighteousness man prospers, gains what appears desirable, conquers enemies, but perishes at the root."
This was written shortly before his death in 1941.
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See http://www.resurgence.org/
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Meanwhile I hope we can share ideas and experiences to do our bit to help our Planet Earth.
From Tiiu Vanamois 16/6/2011. Today 6am was full eclipse of the Moon, coloured red.....
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